When Life Is Overwhelming

Life is depressing! All we have to do nowadays is turn on the TV, listen to our favourite radio station, or check out our Facebook or Twitter account long enough and we will hear or see something that will ruin our comfortable life. Children being decapitated by ISIS; Ebola infections reaching the one thousand mark; sexual perversion being marketed as normal; Christianity being ridiculed and hated, to the point of physical persecution; increase in violence, apathy and food prices; add to that the increasing health problems you may encounter (usually high blood pressure from hearing and seeing all these things) and other personal issues and we can start to confidently say with the saints of old “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Sometimes I have to confess and say that I was foolish in bringing a child into this mad, confusing world. What was I thinking? Where is this all going to lead? Is there hope?

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re going to say, “Oh yeah here it comes. ‘It’s all about Jesus!’ Well it’s not that easy!” Guess what? You’re right – it’s not. And I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I know One who does (and yeah, it’s Jesus).

The thing I am impressed the most about Jesus was how “real” he was. He didn’t gloss over the reality of wickedness nor the suffering that we will receive as we live in this broken and cursed world. In fact, He entered into this bent world while leaving perfection – not only in location i.e. heaven, but in fellowship and love i.e. the Trinity.

He mentioned the fact that this world will progressively get worse and that believing in Him did not mean that we will escape trouble; in fact, sometimes it will actually bring trouble – ask any brother or sister who used to be Muslim!

But the One thing He did promise was that He would be with us through the thick and thin. Two thousand years of history has proved this. Jesus Himself said after His resurrection that He would be with us, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He also told His disciple “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

In this world, which is the source of all problems, there is no way that we can find the solution! Mankind has tried and tried again and again and have come up short. The only way we can find peace in this world of disruption and chaos is the One outside of it – and this is Jesus Christ. He has overcome this world; death cannot touch Him again; vile threats do not phase Him; He is above all and will one day come back to bring peace, justice and righteousness.